Saving for Disney - CC Points

[teamhayes]

I am about to open a new card to try to earn free flights and I believe I have narrowed it down to 2. 

Chase Sapphire:
0 fee first year - $95 there after
50,000 points if you spend $4K in first 3 months
5,000 points if you add an authorized user

Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa:
$99 annual fee
50,000 points if you spend $2K first 3 months
6,000 bonus points on card anniversary (for us it would be after we took our trip in October)


Any pros and cons for either card?

Anyone have any of the above and love or hate them?

Any preferences? Suggestions?

Are these the best ways to get free tickets?

I need 5 so that is like 100,000 plus points. 

[teamhayes]

Also I see people take out several cards on some of these blogs.

I really don't want to destroy my credit but do people do this?

And basically this is a one shot deal bc you will never get the sign up bonuses again for future trips right?

[arch01]

What is your home airport and what airlines fly from there?

I'd actually consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. 100,000 points to start after you hit the minimum spend, which is worth $1500 in travel. Yes, it has an annual fee, but you get a $300 travel credit per year and a bunch of other nice perks.

We have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and it's been fine. We're actually going to ditch it and our regular Freedom card soon and get the new Freedom card (1.5% on everything, no annual fee). I'm pretty loyal to Chase in general (Southwest RR Visa is operated through Chase).

[teamhayes]

Ive never looked into Chase Reserve - let me take a look

[teamhayes]

Eek $450 annual fee is a tough one to swallow

[arch01]

Oct 3, 2016 12:42:27 GMT -5 teamhayes said:

Eek $450 annual fee is a tough one to swallow

It is BUT considering if you open it now you get $300 in travel credits this year and $300 next year, it pays for itself. 

[lala]

Use the points guy site. We do this all the time. We've had both of those cards, the Starwood Amex and are trying to get the new reserve card now. If you pay off in full every month, you can get great rewards.

We flew 4 of us round trip to Orlando & California from Philly on southwest points last year.

Credit card churning like this pays for a good chunk of our traveling. 8/12 nights in California this year are from Starwood Amex and we are flying 5 of us Philly to lax direct & back for only $450 on British airways visa points.

[teamhayes]

good point - I wonder when the $300 credit credits?

I wouldn't want to keep the card open for more than a year to avoid the $450 fee.

[Deleted]

We got a Southwest card and disney card for this trip.

There is a southwest card that is only $80 (or maybe $70) but still gives you 50,000 points. I love flying Southwest, and they seem to be the cheaper option here, so we got that.
I then got the free Disney card for the $200 GC.

Neither action really lowered my credit score very much.

[teamhayes]

I am intrigued by this other Chase card but would only want to pay the $450 annual fee once but still get the 100,000 points and the $300 credit twice.

Wonder how to figure that out?

[lala]

Oct 3, 2016 15:29:13 GMT -5 teamhayes said:

I am intrigued by this other Chase card but would only want to pay the $450 annual fee once but still get the 100,000 points and the $300 credit twice.

Wonder how to figure that out?

I don't see how you'd get the yearly credit more than once w/ paying the fee only once. Regardless, the points guy is where to go for this kind of info.SaveSaveSaveSave

[arch01]

You get the $300 credit from now til December and the new year starts in January, so this is a card where you definitely want to open it in the second half of the year to maximize this benefit.

[lala]

Oct 3, 2016 17:18:13 GMT -5 arch01 said:

You get the $300 credit from now til December and the new year starts in January, so this is a card where you definitely want to open it in the second half of the year to maximize this benefit.

Now that is actually ringing a bell after reading about it.

[teamhayes]

Hmmm so as long as I used all or transferred all the points to an airline by oct 2017 i could cancel earn 100,000! Points plus $600? And only pay fee of &450 once?

Sound right ?

[arch01]

Oct 3, 2016 19:14:20 GMT -5 teamhayes said:

Hmmm so as long as I used all or transferred all the points to an airline by oct 2017 i could cancel earn 100,000! Points plus $600? And only pay fee of &450 once?

Sound right ?

Yep!

There's some other perks too, but these are the highlights

[teamhayes]

So it seems like the $300 is a credit for travel only related expenses
I'm not sure if I would have $300 worth of travel expenses per year or at least this year

[teamhayes]

Also do you get more bank for your points if you transfer the points to say southwest then book the flights through southwest as opposed to the chase site

[spaghetticat]

I have the Sapphire and the Freedom. THe four of us flew to Orlando for free and we will be able to do it again for our next trip. I only use the Freedom for the 5% reward areas. Sapphire for everything else. The Disney card sucks and I kinda wish I didn't get it. I don't want to open another card because it's too many to keep track of.

[arch01]

Ok-so travel related expenses include parking, public transportation and a slew of other things. TPG I think has a pretty extensive list of what qualifies.

Also...IME, it's better for *me* to transfer to Southwest and book. What I have found is that since Southwest points are usually 1 point=$1.50-1.70 (I can't remember the exact valuation), it works out better for me. I booked 2 flights from CLT to LAS for less than 60,000 points (essentially $600), but had I paid cash, it would've been over $900. Here's where you have to do the math though...with the Sapphire Reserve, you get 50% more for your points when you book through UR. So 10,000 points equals $150; so it really comes down to the flights and prices.

I have read about people who transfer their Chase UR points to, say, American Airlines, which boggles my mind. It takes so many miles for 1 round trip ticket-but I guess it makes sense if you just need to round out already accrued miles.

[Deleted]

Oct 3, 2016 20:02:52 GMT -5 spaghetticat said:

I have the Sapphire and the Freedom. THe four of us flew to Orlando for free and we will be able to do it again for our next trip. I only use the Freedom for the 5% reward areas. Sapphire for everything else. The Disney card sucks and I kinda wish I didn't get it. I don't want to open another card because it's too many to keep track of.

Yeah, I'm for sure canceling the Disney card after this trip. It's only 1% for pretty much everything and all my other cards are higher.

[teamhayes]

Ahhhhhhh I don't know what to do!

I know in southwest I can get the tickets for the least points but with the other cards more points

I need to do something soon bc I have a handful of fairly expensive things I need to buy soon

[arch01]

Oct 3, 2016 20:58:52 GMT -5 teamhayes said:

Ahhhhhhh I don't know what to do!

I know in southwest I can get the tickets for the least points but with the other cards more points

I need to do something soon bc I have a handful of fairly expensive things I need to buy soon

I literally made a chart with expenses I knew were coming up, estimated points in return, cost of tickets, etc. and chose that way. It helped me to see it on paper. #dork

[teamhayes]

Oct 3, 2016 20:02:52 GMT -5 spaghetticat said:

I have the Sapphire and the Freedom. THe four of us flew to Orlando for free and we will be able to do it again for our next trip. I only use the Freedom for the 5% reward areas. Sapphire for everything else. The Disney card sucks and I kinda wish I didn't get it. I don't want to open another card because it's too many to keep track of.

Did you buy your tickets directly from Chase or transfer them to Southwest and buy the tickets there?

[teamhayes]

I just saw a commercial for cap one venture

That looks pretty good too

Any feedback?

[taratru]

I have both of them. They both have funded/will fund pretty much every trip I ever take. I did four Disney trips in 12 months just on the 50,000 points from the SW card. I am not a card churner by any means. These are my two cards, period. I transfer the Chase points to my SW account - it's always a better deal to book through SW, in my experience.

[teamhayes]

Oct 5, 2016 11:41:51 GMT -5 taratru said:

I have both of them. They both have funded/will fund pretty much every trip I ever take. I did four Disney trips in 12 months just on the 50,000 points from the SW card. I am not a card churner by any means. These are my two cards, period. I transfer the Chase points to my SW account - it's always a better deal to book through SW, in my experience.

WOW

this is very helpful - i am leaning towards both of these cards - wonder if I should start with the Chase and cancel it right before October to avoid the fee. 

No issues with transferring all the points to SW or can you only transfer in whole increments?

THanks 

[taratru]

Oct 5, 2016 11:46:51 GMT -5 teamhayes said:

Oct 5, 2016 11:41:51 GMT -5 taratru said:

I have both of them. They both have funded/will fund pretty much every trip I ever take. I did four Disney trips in 12 months just on the 50,000 points from the SW card. I am not a card churner by any means. These are my two cards, period. I transfer the Chase points to my SW account - it's always a better deal to book through SW, in my experience.

WOW

this is very helpful - i am leaning towards both of these cards - wonder if I should start with the Chase and cancel it right before October to avoid the fee. 

No issues with transferring all the points to SW or can you only transfer in whole increments?

THanks 

Hmmmmm....I've only ever transferred whole increments, so I don't know if you can unload the whole balance.  The thing I love about SW is that I can just buy points if I'm short, usually at a MUCH cheaper rate than buying a ticket (especially if there's a sale).